Circle of Impact Resources

Circle of Impact Leadership GuidesThese conversational guides are tools for helping leaders and their teams think and communicate clearly about their work and the challenges of change in the 21st. Century.

Life-Work Transitions MaterialsChange is normal, disruptive and a mark of the transitional nature of life and work. These materials are designed to help bring clarity and direction to people and organizations in the midst of transition.

Lewis & Clark for the 21st Century blogA decade and a half ago, I became deeply interested in the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803-1806). I saw in this story leadership lessons that I wanted to share with people, so that they too would travel the trail, and discover this great American story.

Just about a year ago, I published The Dip.It turned out to be one of my most successful books. Perhaps you have a copy--which I appreciate more than you can guess. Now, here's the favor:A year later, would you mind sharing your copy? Take it off the shelf and loan it to someone. Someone at work or in your family, perhaps. If I could double the number of people who read the book, it would be pretty cool.Thanks.

So, I decided to read it again. Here's the lesson for us all. Context matters. A book read at one point in time may not have the effect that it does at another point. This is where I find myself. I'm in a Dip, and have becoming increasingly aware over the past few weeks, it was time to quit. Quit in order to push through the Dip.

Here's what I've realized through reading Seth's book. He makes the point that we should look at what we do from the perspective of being the best in the world at a certain thing. What I have begun to see over the past year is this very thing. It will take time and focus to realize its potential. This means I must quit certain responsibilities that I've acquired.

If you have ambition or desire to be the best in the world at something, you will find that for a period of time, you'll be in dark with your feelings of ambition. You may not see what it is that you can excel at. So, you do a wide variety of things because each may teach you something or it gives you the opportunity to contribute in some meaningful way. It is like Jim Collins writes about in Good To Great, that the enemy of the great is the good. In this case, the enemy of our successfully achieving world's best status are all the things that we do well, but not well enough to become the primary focus of our lives.

This is the message of The Dip. If what you are doing isn't leading some where, then quit so you can find it. It takes courage and persistence, but that's nothing new. Needless to say, read the book.